As I watched Tech score in the final second of the game, I felt a deep pain in my heart. Although I was a defeated Longhorn in Raider land, I wore my burnt orange proudly.
[1] While I was in Lubbock, I realized how glad I am to be a Longhorn, and I was dying to get back to the school, the people, and the city. Longhorns have a “fighting spirit of progress”[2] and they make their way no matter what. It’s no wonder we have a longhorn as our mascot, but there are some characteristics I would have never thought we shared. I learned, from the marvelous Frank Dobie, longhorns have “strong attachments to their accustomed home,”[3] and it made me realize the same is true for longhorns at U.T.
[4]
I have not been at U.T. very long, but I have fallen in love with Austin, and I know I want to live here if I don’t end up on the other side of the world. A lot of the Texas Ex’s I know have stayed in or around this area, and I think it is because U.T. was their accustomed home where they found life-long friends. College transforms you from a kid to an independent adult, and when you come to a place as amazing as Austin, it is hard to want to go anywhere else. Just like the story of Sancho, a person comes to U.T falls in love with the amazing people and spicy culture, and always has a sense of home here. Even when they can’t be here, they “raise [their] head as if memory and expectation were stirring.”[5] I have a much greater meaning as a longhorn than I did before, but with that I am disturbed by some of the things that have happened to our mascot.
The first Bevo “was served as barbecue to over one hundred guest”. I was absolutely disgusted when I read this not only because I had just developed a whole new respect and love for longhorns, but also because it just does not seem right. I liked to think our mascot was “lovingly cared for and protected,”[6] just as the Hindu’s treat cows. Although the Hindu’s cow has much more significance than a mascot; cows are “a gift of the gods to the human race.”[7] At the Diwali fest, I talked to Acharya Gulati and he taught me the importance of doing good things and not expecting anything in return, just as God gives us everything we have for nothing in return.
[8] I know how important a gift from God is in Hinduism, so a cow must be very sacred. Although I do not expect U.T. to have the same view for a longhorn, I do believe we should respect our mascot more.
Respect for an animal that is just like us, on a journey through life with our home in our hearts and “true lover[s] of freedom.”[9] I think one of the reasons Frank Dobie was considered such an amazing teacher was because he realized that “only the sense of being in place gives… natural man contentment.”[10] As I sit in the six-pack in front of the tower, I am filled with warm fuzzies because I am a part of this University. Being away from my home at U.T. in Lubbock was not fun, but just as this reading has lead me to a new sense of being a longhorn, I will continue to always represent my school and never forget it is the place I was reborn.
[1] http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2008/10/30/PH2008103004344.jpg
[2] U.T. and Leadership, (Austin: Jenn’s Copies & Binding, 2008), 733.
[3] U.T. and Leadership, (Austin: Jenn’s Copies & Binding, 2008), 716.
[4] http://www.theamundsons.com/photos/2006/texas%20longhorn%20with%20rose_1%202.jpg
[5] U.T. and Leadership, (Austin: Jenn’s Copies & Binding, 2008), 720.
[6] U.T. and Leadership, (Austin: Jenn’s Copies & Binding, 2008), 713C.
[7] U.T. and Leadership, (Austin: Jenn’s Copies & Binding, 2008), 713B.
[8] http://kalakar.co.in/Greet/greetings%5CDiwali.jpg
[9] U.T. and Leadership, (Austin: Jenn’s Copies & Binding, 2008), 744.
[10] U.T. and Leadership, (Austin: Jenn’s Copies & Binding, 2008), 748.
No comments:
Post a Comment